Say You Still Love Me(48)

I wouldn’t be sitting here with him right now.

A sigh of relief runs through me.

“So now you know why I pretend they don’t exist,” he mutters wryly.

Even Rhett seems like a saint right now, despite the havoc he has caused in our family. “Did they at least apologize?”

He shrugs. “In their own way. But they really fucked up things for Jeremy and me. Now every time there’s a theft around school or the neighborhood, fingers are automatically pointed our way. We’ve even had the cops come by our apartment saying that so-and-so saw one of us in the area at the time. Thankfully we had proof that we weren’t. Not sure what’s going to happen the next time, when we don’t.” He sighs. “So, now you know the kind of lowlife trash I am, Piper. We’re that family. Every town has one of them. The ones you can’t trust, that you know it’s only a matter of time before they pull some shady shit.”

“You’re not like your father or your brothers, though,” I rush to argue.

He laughs, but there’s no mirth in the sound. “How do you know I’m not?”

“I just do,” I say with conviction, shoving away that tiny voice in the back of my head that wonders if I could be wrong.

His hard swallow carries in the quiet night as he fumbles with his cigarette pack, pulling another one out. He brings it to his lips but simply holds it there, unlit. “I found a dead cockroach in the box of Cheerios, the morning that I left to come here. I’ll bet you could never say that.”

I turn away to hide my cringe. I’ve never even seen a cockroach, alive or otherwise.

He casts his free hand toward the ground. “I’m wearing these shitty running shoes because I can’t afford new ones until I get paid. My bumper is being held up by duct tape. And the best thing about coming to camp? I’m not eating peanut butter sandwiches and ramen noodles five days a week.” Finally he gives in and lights the cigarette. His third.

I wish I knew what to say to comfort him, but I haven’t the first clue. He speaks about a world I am entirely unfamiliar with, and it’s not what my mother deems “normal” life.

It’s being outright poor.

I swallow my pity, because I know he doesn’t want it. “Does anyone else here know about your family?” Ashley doesn’t, or she would have said something. Does Avery?

He shakes his head, his gaze off in the dark distance. “I didn’t even tell Eric. It was nice, you know. No one knowing anything about me. I liked it that way.”

And now I know something big.

“I won’t say a word to anyone. I promise.”

He examines the end of the burning cigarette perched between his fingers. “Doesn’t really matter anymore, now that Christa knows. She doesn’t live too far away from me. She must have seen that news article and put two and two together.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about her. She didn’t even want to tell me. She actually held back.”

“Wow. Christa holding back her opinion. That’s a first.” His voice drips with sarcasm.

I feel a twinge of guilt. “She covered for me last night, too. With Darian.” Though the bat fiasco wouldn’t have happened in the first place had she not tried to stop me.

His lips twist in thought and when he speaks again, his tone is much softer. “She must really like you.”

Kyle might not want pity, but I can’t help but offer comfort. “Don’t worry so much about people finding out. No one’s going to care.” I nudge his shoulder with mine. “I know I don’t.”

“Really?” He tips his head to peer at me, and I can barely make out his face in the dim light. “The girl who dated the captain of the rugby team doesn’t care that her new guy is basically white trash?”

I sigh with exasperation. “Stop saying that! You aren’t that.” I frown. “And did you forget that my ex was a giant douchebag? Having rich parents doesn’t automatically make you a better person.”

“Fair point.” He kicks a loose stone away. “But what would your mom say if she knew you were out here right now with me?”

“My mom? She already knows I’m—” I cut that sentence off, feeling my cheeks flush. My mother saw me fawn over Kyle. So it’s going to be the boy with the Mohawk, is it? she said, and she wasn’t at all perturbed by that. Then again, she didn’t know about his smoking habit or his tattoos, or that half his immediate family is behind bars. “She wouldn’t care.”

“Right . . .” Kyle murmurs, as if reading the doubt in my thoughts. He hesitates, and when he speaks again, his voice is soft. “Does it make you wish you’d never taken my dare the first night here?”

When I announced that I’m crushing hard on Kyle in front of everyone.

“Not even a little bit. Is that why you didn’t want me to know about this? You thought I wouldn’t want to be with you anymore?”

He bows his head and mutters softly, “Something like that.”

“Well then . . . you can’t read people nearly as well as you think you can.”

He lets out a slow, long sigh of relief, and then leans toward me.

My heart begins to pound in my chest.

But he stops himself. “I’m sorry.” He holds up his cigarette.